The Calm GM: Starting Your Game

So, for various reasons I've decided to start a series of blog posts on advice for new GMs. I can't promise that the advice is exceptional or that it'll apply to everyone who reads it, but it's what I picked up both as a starting GM and from watching other GMs. What I can promise is that there will be no swearing, censored or otherwise, as I want to focus on giving advice over being particularly entertaining, although I hope I'll achieve the second as well.

So where shall I begin? I thought I'd begin at the beginning, where every GM must, because it applies to almost everyone and is an easy to grasp concept. So the first thing you should do is to be certain that you want to run a game. Nothing dooms a game to being poor more than not wanting to run it, as I found out when running a game of Shadowrun 5th Edition, and you want to provide the best game possible, not only for your players but also for yourself.

However, if you're here then you probably already want to run a game. Maybe you have a group of people who already want to play with you, maybe you are planning to present your idea at the next game night so it won't be yet more Ticket to Ride, for the purposes of this article it's unimportant, but there are two ideas I wish to introduce now.

You do not have to run the game your players want.
Your players are not obliged to play in a game they do not want to play in.

The idea behind these is simple, even if your players have only ever played Dungeons & Dragons before, and don't want to play anything else, you to not have to run D&D; and a player who is not happy with your game has the right to either voice their concerns or get up and leave. If a player does leave your game do not feel hurt, just understand that it's not what they're looking for, and you can always invite them back if your next game is more in line with their interests.

However, the key to running a game is compromise. Before playing your first session, ideally before you even make your characters, you should have at least a short discussion with your players over what you want the game to be and what they want, and attempt to come to a compromise. It doesn't matter how cool our idea is, if the players do not want to play in steampunk World War 1 then they are not likely to enjoy themselves. Sometimes players will enjoy a campaign that they didn't want to play, but you can never know that before the game begins.

Another important thing to do is to prepare your game, and you'll want at least a basic idea of what you want to focus on and how you want to run it. There's no wrong style, I've seen:

• Games where the PCs are adventuring dungeons for wealth and power and a dragon might always be around the corner from your level 1 dwarf.
• Games focused on the plot, where the PCs have to act quickly and on little information, or London will be doomed.
• Games focused on the world, where there may be an ongoing plot but the core activity is exploring the setting provided by the GM.
• Games where the PCs drive the plot forward by their interactions with the world.
• Games in the style of a certain genre, film, book, or other piece of media.
• Games run from a published adventure or campaign.

As well as many other styles I am sure that I don't have the slightest clue about. However, talking about focus and style is a long topic, and one best saved for another time, but once you've decided and prepared your first session you're ready to start gaming.

So I suppose I should do focus and style next, seeing as I've started talking about it, but I might talk about preparing for your sessions instead, it feels like it'll be more useful to those actually struggling. I'll see, but the next piece of advice should be up within a week.